Out of the Blue Bouquet

by Amanda Tru, Hallee Bridgeman, and Carol Moncado

[phyllish]

I was intrigued by the introduction to this collection, written by Amanda Tru, one of the authors.  She spoke about anthologies that she read as a girl that she and her sister called "potato chip" books because "once you started they were difficult to stop, but they didn't really have any nutritional value, so to speak".  She went on to describe how this collection is different.  The goal of the collection is to  have each book be independent, yet part of a single universe with a point of intersection drawing everything together.  With the reader not knowing what that link is until the last book.  Each book in the collection is a brand-new, complete and independent story.

And thus this collection was born.

Overall, I have to say that I am impressed with the time spent in formatting the book.  The headings are beautiful (even on my black-and-white Kindle screen), with a lovely graphic that is large enough to be seen and an attractive font.  The first sentences start out with large caps and the first few words are bold, reminiscent of a book from long ago.  Each book has discussion questions after the story for book clubs or personal reflection as well.

Here are my reviews of the individual stories:



Tags: Stepparent, Flowers, Construction, Chef, Betrayal, Orphan, Foreign Mission, Identity Theft, Orphanage

This story was a touching account of Callie, a girl who was struggling under an intense financial burden she never should have had to bear.  Due to a mix-up, an invitation to dinner was delivered, not to her best friend, but the man she had been crushing on for years, Ian.

The characters were endearing.  Though Callie should have handled her secret differently, her actions and her reasons were part of why she was such a great person, and the motivations made sense.  Ian was a almost perfect, except he wasn't.  Which made him more perfect.  :-)

The message of the story was one of trust, leaning on others and forgiveness.

The first line of this story is:

Calla Vaughn felt the telltale shudder of the car through her seat just as she started to pull through the gate.

 

Now it is your turn! Grab the book you are currently reading, open to chapter one, and post the first sentence (or second sentence) in the comments below. Then head on over to Hoarding Books to see all of the FLF pages this week (just click on the FLF button below).This review was originally posted on Among the Reads